CURIOSITY IN THE TREE

What on earth is that funny looking fuzzball hanging in the Oak tree?I looked and looked for more of these curious things in this tree and others around it and this is the only one I can find. It is probably some kind of parasite like Spanish moss or Mistletoe.
I wondered if it was the beginning of an Oak Gall, but my research discouraged that possibility.
Then again I could be wrong. The gall is the result of the tree protecting itself from a tiny wasp laying an egg just under the leaf skin. A natural process envelopes the egg or eggs and they grow and thrive on the tissue in the leaf.

Here is a zoom-in picture. It is high enough in the tree I can't get a ladder to reach it. If I could poke it or even touch it I might have more information to help find it on the internet. As it is 'fuzzy thing in Oak tree' is not good enough. Any Foresters out there? Any ideas of what it might be?

SUNDAY STROLL - CAUGHT MY EYE

The very first Rose of Sharon. Our all white version has a larger than usual flower and no color in its throat. The Redheaded Mushroom with the number seven was discovered by Flutemaker and we both marveled at the wonder of it all. Were we being given an omen and what could it mean? We will wait for more sevens to show up.
At last the wild Blueberries are giving of their bounty. You can't see the ripe ones because I ate them before I thought to take the picture. Maybe next time. The flavor is wonderful, the morsel is tiny, a true gift in a tiny package.

Here the tame berries are just taking on color. Soon, very soon, hopefully before the birds zero in on them, we will have a few to put on our cereal.



Good fellow Mr. Froggy enjoys the garden along with the bugs, rabbits and us.





I have always loved the flowers of Hostas. To me they remind me of the bells of a Carillon.

The sad looking hanging tomatoes gave us our first harvest last week.

Small be tasty.

The wild Flowers continue their prolific blooming and spreading. The Pippsipsiwa has opened their flowers and are shinning their tiny little selves to my delight.

Not to be outdone the Lilly and Shasta Daisies open in the tame garden.

Finally a little blurry, but sitting still for a moment a pair of Ruby Throated Hummingbirds as they pose for a portrait.

Take a stroll with other folks over at The Quiet Country House.

MUSHROOM COLONY

With a hat off to Gilly over at Winds of Change for showing me I could build a photo collage. I present the Building of a Mushroom Colony. It was amazing to watch as the group erupted up through the ground and in a days time they were all here and then a couple more days and they were gone.

GRACE NOTES - PEACE PILGRIM

In 1953 this lady took the name Peace Pilgrim and began to walk across America sharing with those who would listen her thoughts on peace, personal inner peace, world and group peace. She was 61 when she began, she never asked for anything, only ate when given food and slept wherever she found a sheltered spot. She walked 28 years until her death in 1981 and covered 25,000 miles speaking wherever folks would invite her in.

Peace Pilgrim's only possessions were the clothes on her back and the few items she carried in the pockets of her blue tunic which read "Peace Pilgrim" on the front and "25,000 Miles on foot for peace" on the back. She had no organizational backing, carried no money, and would not even ask for food or shelter. When she began her pilgrimage she had taken a vow to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." Peace Pilgrim was a strict vegetarian and did not use fur, feathers, leather or bone.

The information above is from Wikipedia. There is much more on the Web to be learned about her and her philosophy.

New Information

This prose about Inner Peace was written by Saskia Davis and I came across this shorter version when I was reading about Peace Pilgrim years ago. I don't remember if at the time it was attributed to Peace Pilgrim but I think it must have. In the comments I have a very kind notice from the author who set me straight on her authorship. To learn more about her and a poster of the complete version go to:

Symptons of Inner Peace

Some signs and symptoms of Inner Peace

A tendency to think and act spontaneously,

rather than on fears based on past experience.

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

A loss of interest in judging other people.

A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

A loss of interest in conflict.

A loss of the ability to worry.

Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.

Frequent attacks of smiling.

An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others

as well as the uncontrolled urge to extend it.

CURIOUS ON TUESDAY

It looked like someone had dropped a sea sponge on the forest floor. It turns out it wasn't dropped it was grown. It has the look of coral out from under the sea. But it is a fungi and is called a sponge. Will wonders never cease. I am 68 and this is my first encounter with this fungi. How delightful. I wonder what I'll find next now that I am looking with more awareness.

SUNDAY STROLL--MEMORY LANE

Here it is Father's Day and once again I am using the picture of my parents in 1940 to celebrate this occasion as I did on Mother's Day. To me they were a matched set, the Yin and Yang of my young life.

Daddy was a man who was self educated, he only went to school through the fourth grade. He helped his family by hunting and trapping in Hilham, Tennessee. To hear some of his stories he led a Hucklebery Finn sort of life. He was a teenager in the mid 1920s and loved the hillbilly music he was hearing. Naturally! he built a fiddle out of an egg crate so he could teach himself to play and join in with a local dance band that played every weekend. In a short time he decided he needed a more professional model of fiddle and sold Bluing to the ladies in the community in order to get his working fiddle from the Montgomery Ward catalog. He became the fiddler in the band and played on weekends at Mrs. Upton's house. She had a large home and would clear out the main room for dancing. Daddy said every weekend he would ride his horse home with red rimed eyes from all the cigarette smoke and dust that rose from the floor, there were no sub floors just tamped dirt under the floor boards. The dancing and stomping would raise quite a mess and everyone went home with a good coating of dust and the appearance of a coal miner.

Toward the end of the 30's he headed to Detroit to join his brother in finding work to make a living. He met and married Mother and turned his talents to making a living as a precision tool maker for U.S. Rubber during the war. He worked in 1/1000' tolerance and was considered vital to the tool making going on at the time. He had time on his hands because his skill was only required as things needed repair. To keep him happy he was allow to use scrape steel to create hunting knives and trinkets for himself. He took the scrape metal to a high level as he created a 22 caliber pistol making all the parts except the barrel and a spring or two. Making that gun gave him a realization of what he could actually do as a craftsman and in time he created wonderful and beautiful Black Powder Kentucky Rifles and Pistol sets that sold to people all over the country and even in Canada. They sold first to family, but soon collectors that saw them were also buying them. Daddy kept raising the price and they kept selling. He hardly knew what to make of it. He figured he surely would price himself out of the market, but he never did.

In time, after my folks moved back to Tennessee Daddy found a fellow, Ray King in Monterey that had a Gibson Mastertone banjo. Daddy thought it was just the cat's meow and he took on a new challenge. He wanted to see if he could recreate that banjo for himself.

And as you can see, he did it. He made everything except the tambourine top, the ring and the tuning pins. And he had the best time singing and playing. I guess it is true, whatever goes around comes around. At the end of his life he was making music like he had as a young man. Daddy sang in that high lonesome nasal sound of Bluegrass music and had so much fun. It was a joy to hear him and sing along.

He doesn't sing in this following clip, but you can get a hint of his musical style which is in the archives of Vanderbuilt University, in their music collection of old timey Appalachian folk music.

Here he is entertaining his first great grandchild, who he calls Red here in the clip. The toes keeping time to the music is that of Aisling from over at the Quiet Country House. She is 'Red's' mommy, my daughter, the Banjo Man's only granddaughter and she has since inherited the banjo.

You may have to let the video load and then play it for real.

To stroll down other lanes visit Aisling at her place.

Video by Limerick, 1991

GRACE NOTES - AGE OF WISDOM

Virgin, Mother, Crone.

These are the three stages of a woman's life. There is also the humorous five stages--

To grow up, fill out, slim down, hold it in, to h*ll with it.

Either way I'm in the last stage. If you look around carefully you may find Crone rites of passage ceremonies. It is a time of celebration once a woman passes Menopause or reaches about 56 years of age. I missed that opportunity. Considering myself to be a crone is a little hard to accept, I think I prefer to see myself as an Elder and hopefully a Wise Woman. In many traditions the Elders in the community are revered as resources of wisdom, traditions and story telling. In my collection of sayings I have many that speak to the realities and hope of reaching old age. I present some of them here.

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Time goes, you say.

Ah no!

Alas, Time stays,

We go!

Austin Dobson, The Paradigm of Time

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Age and Youth belong together

When age is not willing to listen to youth,

it has lost it's right to leadership,

and when youth is not willing to listen to age,

it is not ready for responsibility.

Benjamin Mays

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If you don't run your own life someone else will!

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A Prayer

'May we be motivated by Love.

Inspired by Joy,

Directed by Wisdom, and

Balanced by Peace.

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What greater wisdom can there be than kindness?

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To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart--

and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love.

Karl Viktor von Bonsteller

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We are all born originals--

why is it so many of us die copies?

Edward Young

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Time is the coin of your life.

It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.

Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

Carl Sandburg

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

A.C. Carlson

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How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because some day in life you will have been all of these.

George Washington Carver

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Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but

beautiful old people are works of art.

Eleanor Roosevelt

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You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.

J. Krishnamurti

CURIOUS CAMOUFLAGE

As Flutemaker and I were headed out for a walk through the neighborhood we saw a snake. Now there is nothing unusual about a snake in the grass. But look a little closer.
Follow the ripple effect on the snakes back. Looks like rick rack to me. Is this a new breed, the Corrugated Black Snake? Quick get out the reptile book, what does the Internet have to say?

It turns out this is a common Rat Snake and I'm going to tell you more than you probably want to know. We thought it might be a deformed Racer, but no, a Racer on being confronted by scary humans slithers off very quickly as in-- Racer. A Rat Snake on the other hand freezes in place 'assuming' if it doesn't move we won't notice it. Pictures of Rat Snakes on the computer showed the same ripple effect in their camouflaged position.
I have to tell you, it looked extremely strange.
Rat Snakes often live in tree hollows and have found comfort in barn lofts where there are mice and nesting birds.
Should you meet a Rat Snake in your travels, just know that you are a terrifying giant and the strange corrugation of the reptile is a natural defense on it's part to become invisible to a predators eyes.

SUNDAY STROLL

I'm starting my stroll in the woods to check on the fern. By fall they should be quite large. Something about ferns seem very calming to me.

At the edge of the woods is our Sweet Shrub, most of the flowers are gone and the interesting seed pods are taking the flowers places. Very interesting to look at, but I understand the seeds inside are poisonous.
Here is the experimental hanging tomato plants, bush on top and grape hanging from the bottom. We are not thrilled. The top plant can't take the heat and we have been watering every day and sometimes twice and it still looks pitiful. We did eat our FIRST TOMATOES today. They were four grape tomatoes from the bottom plant.



Our potted tomatoes are doing much better. Pay no attention to the yellow leaves, I forgot to pick them off before taking the picture. Do we know how to recycle or what? Our buckets were piling up in the garage, we knew they would be good for something.

I've walked through the house and am on the front porch. A Friend gave me the start for this plant last year and I can't remember what variety it is. If you know give me a heads up.

Checking the temperature is a little hard because the Fuchsia is getting in the way. I think it is near the 80' here in the shade. Behind the flower baskets is our American Chestnut tree. It is becoming quite an eye full. And we have two trees out of four that we planted that are doing well and should live long and prosper.

Here is a close up of the catkins. The native American Chestnut trees were almost entirely wiped out by a disease in the early 1900's. The few hardy trees that resisted the disease have been cherished and nurtured for years while foresters worked to create reliable young trees.

For years all new growth died after seeming to be established. New growth would come up from the roots, but always failed after a time. The disease is still doing its deadly work. But recently hope is being renewed by trees that seem to have longevity.

There is now true hope that once again the American Chestnut tree will reign as the beautiful and strong hearty building material that formed vast numbers of barns and buildings still standing across the U.S. The story My father told me was that a squirrel in Maine could move across the tops of Chestnut trees all the way to the Mississippi delta region without ever having to touch the ground. The forests were that dense and full of Chestnut trees.

That's my stroll and forestry lesson for the day. To find other strollers go to

The Quiet Country Place.

GRACE NOTES - LIFE

The driving force of nature is the life force. We are co creators with God. Everything about us is geared toward insuring that the future is filled with life. That we sometimes miss the mark as we aim at that goal doesn't change the facts of that imperative. It only highlights the reality of free will. I think you will see in the following quotes I tend to view life as a gift from God and therefore I am filled with Joy and Thanksgiving and thrill to the life force that animates me.

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May I so live and so attune my life and being that the God within me may see and hear; and the small voice speak from within and teach me that which I cannot see or hear from without.

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Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains,

at the huge waves of the sea,

at the long courses of the rivers,

at the vast compass of the ocean,

at the circular motions of the stars;

and they pass by themselves without wondering.

St. Augustine

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The great danger in life is not showing up.

Rachel Naomi Remen

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The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.

Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are, seek to determine who you want to be!

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'You are a distinct portion of the essence of God; and contain part of Him in yourself. Why then, are you ignorant of your noble birth. Why do you not consider whence you came? Why do you not remember, when you are eating, who you are who eat, and whom you feed/ Do you not know that it is the Divine you feed, the Divine you exercise? You carry God about with you, poor wretch, and know nothing of it.'

Epictetus, philosopher 2000 years ago.

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But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles;

they shall run, and not be weary;

and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

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Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time,

like the dew on the tip of a leaf.

Rabindranath Tagore

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What is Life?

"It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

It is the breath of the buffalo in the wintertime.

It is the little shadow which runs across the grass

and loses itself in the sunset."

Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior, 1890

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Joy is not a rare and secret thing obtained at great expense.

It is yours if you are willing to breath deeply,

turn homeward and embrace your own life force.

Jennifer James

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I say Yes! to my life as a sacred outrageous adventure---

holy and humorous ---

that has never been done quite the way I do it.

MEET AND GREET

KiKi and our resident Black Snake.

SUNDAY STROLL - LITTLE THINGS

I got distracted this week when the mushrooms lured me into the world of the small. This red fellow has pushed through the moss to spend a little time before spreading a few spores here and about. We have several reds to be seen around the woods.

A cousin, I'm sure, sports a yellow hat and is close to the old red fellow.



When I came across these fine specimens I wanted to sit and wait until they started dancing. They really made me think of the Oriental Mushrooms in the Disney movie Fantasia. I could imagine then bowing and spinning in just the cutest way.


Well, the mushrooms just kept getting smaller as I looked around and I fell into that wonderful magical rabbit hole and began to look for the pixies who live in this world of the tiny.


By golly here was the evidence of at least one pixie gardener or mini bee keeper. I must keep looking.

Just behind the brier I spotted these very small flowers. A clue that the pixies are nearby.

Oh look, Pipsissewa. I think the clever pixies wire up these plants that look like street lights for midnight illumination on their frolics. My favorite thing about these plants is getting to say their name-Pipsissewa.More evidence that pixies enjoy these woods. Here are low bush blueberries that will feed many little shy pixies and brownies.
Finally I can't prove it because they are so clever, but I think this is the entry to the Dogwood apartment complex. When the fireflies hover around the tree, I think pixies are dismounting from their rides to go into their home.

Well there you have it, a stroll through our yard, woods and my imagination. For other strolling about head to Aisling's place.

You've got to get up in the morning!

Back in the days of muddled headed mornings this is the song I would have sung if indeed I woke up singing. Go ahead and sing.

Oh! how I hate to get up in the morning,
Oh! how I’d love to remain in bed;
For the hardest blow of all,
is to hear the bugler call

You’ve got to get up, you’ve got to get up, you’ve got to get up this morning!
Irving Berlin after serving in the 1st World War


Somewhere along the line I decided I would prefer a more pleasant start to the day and so I practiced singing myself awake. Not out loud of course, I had a bedfellow who always worked the late shift and slept much later that me.My first songs to myself were obvious wake up songs like 'O, What a beautiful morning', 'Heavenly Sunlight', and the Sunday school song that I thought of as Rise and Shine and give God the glory, glory. I looked it up and it is called:

Arky, Arky Song
Rise and shine
and give God the Glory, Glory
Rise and shine
and give God the Glory, Glory
Rise and shine
and give God the Glory, Glory
Children of the Lord.

I use that a lot, It goes on and on about Noah building the Arky, Arky. But the refrain is all I really remember.

Then another song from my childhood is this:
When the red, red robin comes bobbin along

When the red red robin comes bob bob bobbin’ along, along
there’ll be no more sobbin’ when he keeps throbbin’ that old sweet song
Wake up, wake up you sleepyhead,
get up, get up, get out of bed
Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red,
live, love, laugh and be happy
What if I’ve been blue, now I’m walking through fields of flowers
Rain may glisten but still I’ll listen for hours and hours
I’m just a kid again, doin’ what I did again, singin’ this song
when the red red robin comes bob bob bobbin’ along
Harry Woods ©1926 Callicoon Music

For the longest time I sang this next song without remembering where it came from, but doing this blog entry I googled 'gray skies' and found the Broadway musical in which it was featured.

Put on a Happy Face
Gray skies are gonna clear up,
Put on a happy face;
brush off the clouds and cheer up,
Put on a happy face.
Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy,
It's not your style;
You'll look so good that you'll be glad
Ya' decide to smile!
Pick out a pleasant outlook,
Stick out that noble chin;
Wipe off that "full of doubt" look,
Slap on a happy grin!
And spread sunshine all over the place,
Just put on a happy face!
Put on a happy face
Put on a happy face
And if you're feeling cross and bitterish
Don't sit and whine
Think of banana split and licorice
And you'll feel fine
I knew a girl so gloommy
She'd never laugh or sing
She wouldn't listen to me
Now she's a mean old thing
So spread sunshine all over the place
just put on a happy face
So, put on a happy face.
Bye, Bye, Birdie Broadway musical

Do you remember a song called:
Blue Skies
Blue skies smiling at me,
nothing but blue skies do I see.
Bluebirds singin a song
nothing but bluebirds all day long
Never saw the sun shining so bright
never saw things going so right
noticing the days hurrying by
When you are in love, my how they fly.

What fun to wake up singing. it didn't come easy at first, but I have stuck to it and enjoy my mornings now so much better. I go back to these songs the most, but other songs come to mind from time to time.
I have even been know to declare in my mind:
This is the day the Lord hath made,
rejoice and be GLAD in it!
What songs sings you awake?
You do have a song, don't you?

GRACE NOTES

In the last couple of weeks we have attended two funerals and as I paged through my book of quotes, ideas and thoughtful writings I was drawn to those that spoke of death. I didn't realize I had collected so many. I will share a few here.

As a true believer in Life everlasting I have a strong sense of "ongoing"and live with a sense of a presence with me, giving peace, joy, comfort and hope. That presence has been called God, Spirit, Comforter, Angels, Guides and at various times in my life I have called it each of those names and with the sense of that presence always with me the fear of death fade into nothingness.

Enjoy the following ideas that have made an impression on me over the years.

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We must sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream,
it may be so the moment after death.
Nathaniel Hawthrone

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Those who love deeply never grow old;
they may die of old age,
but they die young.
Annon.

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* The grave is not the final end.
* What we do here is related to what happens afterwards.
* What happens afterwards is what no one can speak of with any assurance.
Rabbi Simon Greenburg

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In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life:
--it goes on.
Robert Frost

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If you would indeed behold the spirit of death,
open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one,
even as the river and the sea are one.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

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These are the few I chose. While picking them an abundant number of Life quotes presented themselves to me and I will feature them next week.

I threw in the Robert Frost quote even though he may not have meant it the way I read it.

photo: 'Angel Light" by Flutemaker

JACKSON'S FINISHED QUILT

I really like this picture of Jack and Josh, they are all of a year older, but it just sings brothers to me. Jackson is two and out of his crib, that was my signal to get busy and make him a quilt and now it is finished. Let me review the steps I have shared here on this blog of how I went about it.. Jack's big brother Joshua who is seven had already received his big boy quilt when he moved from the crib, now it is Jacks turn. I decided to make Jack's quilt from the same quilt pattern as his brother, but I wanted it to be different in color and layout. A compliment to Josh's but unique to Jack.

First comes cutting, sewing and stacking blocks to be put together later. I find the process almost meditative

Here are the two basic components that make up each quilt. I altered the number of each and how I would set them together.

This is the new quilt. The color schemes should blend nicely on the bunk beds. At least that is my deep desire. Below is Joshua's quilt that I guess I made about five years ago. The same fabric was no longer available.

Jack's quilt is the ninth grandchild big kid quilt. They all got a crib quilt and all I asked their moms was to not hang them on a wall or put them away for keeps. I call my quilts Dragon Quilts because I expect them to be dragged, used as forts over tables or chairs, spit on, thrown up on and wrapped around as snuggly hugs from grandma. I don't think that's to much to ask. Use it or loose it, at least thats what I told them.